Marcel Chevalier (28 February 1921 in

Montrouge Montrouge () is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. After a long period of decline, the population has increased again in recent years. ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a département in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the we ...

– 8 October 2008 in

Vendôme Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019). It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ent ...

) worked as the last chief

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or orderin ...

(

Monsieur de Paris This is a list of people who have acted as official executioners. Algeria Alger Monsieur d'Alger: The Executioners of the French Republic In 1870 the Republic of France abolished all local executioners and named the executioner of Algiers ...

) in France. He succeeded his wife's uncle,

André Obrecht André Obrecht (9 August 1899 – 30 July 1985) was the official executioner of France from 1951 until 1976. Early life Born in Paris on 9 August 1899, Obrecht was the nephew of the chief executioner Anatole Deibler. He learned of his uncle's ...

, in 1976 and held his position until 1981, when

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

was abolished under president

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, ...

and justice minister Robert Badinter. The method of application of the death penalty for civil capital offences in France from 1791 to 1981 was

beheading Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

with the

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

. Military executions were by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

. Chevalier, who started his executioner's career in 1958, performed about 40 executions. After his appointment as chief executioner on 1 October 1976, he executed only two people. They were the last two executions in France: *

Jérôme Carrein Jérôme Henri Carrein (2 July 1941 – 23 June 1977) was the second-to-last convicted criminal to be executed by guillotine in France. On 27 October 1975 in Arleux, Northern France, Carrein, father of five children, often of no fixed abod ...

, condemned twice for the murder and rape of an eight-year-old girl, was guillotined on 23 June 1977 in

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, Do ...

. *

Hamida Djandoubi Hamida Djandoubi ( ar, حميدة جندوبي, Ḥamīda Jandūbī; 22 September 1949 – 10 September 1977) was a Tunisian convicted murderer sentenced to death in France. He moved to Marseille in 1968, and six years later he kidnapped, torture ...

, for having tortured and strangled his former nurse, was guillotined on 10 September 1977 in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

.Sept. 10, 1977: Heads Roll for the Last Time in France. ''Wired'', Sep 10, 2007. https://www.wired.com/2007/09/dayintech-0910-2/ Chevalier worked as a printer subsequent to his retirement. He was married to Marcelle Obrecht with whom he had two children. His son Éric was present at Carrein's and Djandoubi's executions in order to prepare him for succession to chief executioner upon his father's eventual retirement. Chevalier was interviewed by the press on a number of occasions, but later, disillusioned by the sensationalist nature of press coverage, chose to say nothing of his experiences with the guillotine.

References

External links

Biography
(''in French'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalier, Marcel 1921 births 2008 deaths People from Montrouge French executioners